The controversial move has ignited discussion on Chinese social media and pushed online government censors into overdrive. Several key terms have suddenly been subjected to heavy censorship on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblog since Sunday.

According to censorship-monitoring websites China Digital Times and Free Weibo, censored phrases include:

I don't agree

migration

emigration

re-election

election term

constitution amendment

constitution rules

proclaiming oneself an emperor

Winnie the Pooh

So what's going on?

The tradition of limiting China's presidencies to 10 years emerged in
the 1990s, when veteran leader Deng Xiaoping sought to avoid a repeat
of the chaos that had marked the Mao era and its immediate aftermath.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 he has shown a readiness to write his own rules.

But
many observers have been alarmed at the prospect of Mr Xi becoming an
"emperor for life", and critics have suggested this could set China's
development back a century.

"It took over 100 years to overthrow
imperialism, and 40 years of reform and opening up, we cannot return to
this type of system." - User 'Jianyuan Shunshui'

"One of the reasons why a tenure limit
is so valuable and adopted by most countries is that we need fresh
blood to maintain the balance of different peoples' opinions." - 'Renzituo 2hao'

References to emperors, and 19th Century warlord Yuan Shikai, who
notoriously tried to restore monarchy, are also being blocked, after
censors clocked on that they were cryptic references to Xi Jinping, such
as this one:

"Yesterday evening the dream of restoring Yuan Shikai came back to the motherland," says 'Zhang Chaoyang'.

The comments remaining on the popular Sina
Weibo microblog are mostly monosyllabic statements from users simply say
they "like" or "approve" the amendments.

They are likely to be from China's "50 Cent Party" - a nickname
coined for internet commentators who are paid small amounts to post
messages supporting the government's position.

Some posts have
attracted thousands of comments - but only a few are available to view.
This is traditionally indicative of online censorship by government
administrators.

The way the proposed changes were announced on Sunday also appeared to be carefully planned.

Whereas English-language media such as broadcaster CGTN
prominently reported the removal of the requirement that presidents and
vice presidents "shall serve no more than two consecutive terms", its
Chinese-language equivalent did not highlight it.

Instead, broadcaster CCTV
instead issued the full list of amendments that were being made to the
constitution, with the abolition of presidential terms listed 14th in 21
total proposed amendments.

China's state-run Global Times has
argued that the change does not mean "that the Chinese president will
have a lifelong tenure".